The Annapolis conference was supposed to be about some new Israeli-Palestinian agreement under the tutelage of the United States and with photogenic attendance of some U.S. friendly Arab leaders.
It will, if it takes place at all, fail for several reasons.
The Israeli condition for negotiating at all is a Palestinian declaration of unconditional surrender on their main issue – their U.N. acknowledged right of return.
Monday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that the starting point for all negotiations with the Palestinians will be the "recognition of Israel as a state for the Jewish people"
This recognition is meant to bolster Israel’s position that rejects the return of Palestinian refugees to areas inside the Green Line – the border before the 1967 Six-Day War.
The atmosphere of the pre-conference negotiations gets intentionally poisoned:
Palestinian officials said chief negotiator Ahmed Qureia and other members of the negotiating team were stopped by Israel Defense Forces soldiers near Jerusalem while on their way to meet their Israeli counterparts to try to draft a joint statement ahead of the Annapolis, Maryland conference scheduled for in late November.
Qureia said his team was held at the West Bank checkpoint for 25 minutes and was asked to keep waiting, but the negotiators refused.
The U.S. is absent in the process. The State Department has neither presented any ideas, nor has it pressured Israel for even the slightest compromise.
The Israeli government has recognised the U.S. Secretary of State as the joke she is:
The long buildup to Annapolis, together with Ms. Rice’s many trips to the region, have given birth to a new verb in Israeli government circles: “lecondel,” meaning, to come and go for meetings that produce few results. The word is based on Ms. Rice’s first name.
Funny indeed, but the failure of the Annapolis conference to achieve any real result will likely lead to the fall of Abbas and renewed violence. That will not be contained to the West Bank and Gaza.
Why do people wish this to happen?